Skip to main content

Brussels mourns

It is with great sadness that I see my Twitter feed filling up with news of the Brussels explosions. 


Belgium is a country that we know well, having lived there on two occasions for over eight years. My son was born there, and until fairly recently it was the country that our kids knew the best. Here are a few pictures from my most recent trip in May 2015 as I share some of my thoughts and memories.

Brussels - Euro Statue

All three of our children attended the local French speaking schools. They all started at Maternelle, like their fellow classmates when they were two and half years old. 'That's young' I hear you say. Which is true, but with three kids under five, I was not complaining. This early crack at education has given them a life-long linguistic advantage and some beautiful cursive writing...




Well, whilst they might be linguistically gifted, it is only compared with their parents. It is certainly not compared with the other students. You see in Belgium there are three official national languages: French, Flemish and German. We used to say the next generation of illiterates in Belgium will be those who are monolingual.

These different languages and cultures also brought their differences of opinions. We often heard the comment that Belgium could be the next Yugoslavia. Happily during our time, this never happened. 


We loved the melting pot of cultures from all around the world.


Living in Belgium was an exciting time of our family life, we have fond memories of this tiny country sandwiched in between France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. 


We would wake-up and decide which country to visit for lunch.

Looking out over Brussels rooftops
It was challenging living away from all family and friends, but we soon found ourselves a popular place to visit. Once the Channel Tunnel crossing had opened we could be in the UK and nearly home easily in three hours. Driving the car to England gave us plenty of opportunities to stock up on our favourite British foods at Sainsbury's returning with a boot full of our favourite cereals and treats that we missed back home in Belgium.


Our Belgian life combined the excitement of Europe, 
with the ease of access back home.


Brussels streets reflected in the modern buildings

Mind you it worked both ways, we loved the new foods we found on the Continent. The street markets were amazing and the speciality shops such as the boulangerie's with croissants like we'd never tasted, pain au chocolates, gateaux and waffles a real treat. 


You never got a bad meal in Belgium, Les Belges like their food!


Wandering around Europe's capital was always fascinating. You can move from the most modern area, like the roads around the European Parliament, to ancient cobbled streets in a heartbeat.   


I loved the differing architecture and the history of the place. 


Sometimes we felt like we were in a Hans Christian Anderson fairytale - well, he was Danish, but I'm sure you get what I mean.

I loved the differing architecture and, of course, geraniums in the window boxes

Whilst we had the excitement of living in the centre of Europe and the kids mixing with the children of the movers and shakers of Europe, there was a darker side to Brussels living.
There was always the threat of being a target. At the school entrance, even in the mid-nineties, our cars were inspected for bombs before we were allowed in to drop the kids off. This was also the time of Marc Dutroux, the Belgium serial killer and paedophile. 


When I think of my time living in Belgium, I was more on guard than my life in Australia.



We lived in the times where open borders offered opportunities for high-end car thefts, stolen on demand allegedly for the Eastern European markets. Car and home jackings were real, our company car was fitted with an anti-hijack device. Happily we were never woken by a criminal demanding the car keys with a gun at their heads, but had we been, the car would drive but after 5kms, it would slow to a halt. 

The advantages of being at the centre of Europe, 
was always its potential biggest disadvantage.



Today's breaking news is sad and horrific. I can picture the airport and the Metro stations and our hearts go out to all those caught up in this terrible tragedy. We share your pain.


With love to all our friends in Belgium.

Linking with Our World Tuesday
Thank you to all the hosts







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hello Summer 2023!

Hello Everyone I hope you are having a wonderful July whereever you are in the world. As it's been a wee while since I stopped by I thought I'd fill you in.  The last three months have been epic. Here is my flight schedule alone: Phuket --> Bangkok --> Singapore --> Melbourne --> Gold Coast (overland to --> Brisbane --> Sydney --> Phuket --> Bangkok --> London --> Paris (overland to Montpellier) --> London. As they say I haven't been everywhere yet but it's on my list! April ended up being an incredible month as I returned to Australia, thanks to a wonderful invite to attend a 7 night Detox at Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat in Queensland. Here is a little excerpt:  Gwinganna Detox Program I’ve been invited to join a  seven-night detox program  at Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat. They are winners of the  World’s Best Eco Spa Awards  (2022 World Spa Awards) and it is beyond exciting. Well, until I read the small print… So it’s no gluten, dairy,

Autumn Spice and everything nice!

Hey, what ever happened to Summer? I hope yours was lovely, mine was pretty amazing! It feels like my whole year has whizzed past in a flash, how about yours?  I've had a year of saying "yes" to everything offered to me. It has been exciting to put it out to the Universe to see where I should be. We feel very fortunate to be able to do this in my husband's early years of retirement. I'm just back in Asia from the US. I never feel my year is quite right without seeing British daffodils in the Spring and a pumpkin and the leaves turning in Autumn. Yay, the world nailed it this year, thank you.  Read on to find out what happened when my ultimate yes occurred on a trip to Montana to meet Ruth, an IG friend. I know Bloggers will smile and not be at all concerned, we've been meeting up around the globe for years, haven't we...?!  But let's just say some of my family and friends were, you're doing what?! But first some Little Wren updates! France I had so

It's a funny old world!

Welcome to Racha Island Hello everyone and greetings from Phuket, Thailand THAILAND THOUGHTS Thailand where we have now reopened the country and are ready to welcome international fully vaccinated arrivals without quarantine to our beautiful island.  For all the details check out  Phuket Sandbox: Would you, should you, could you?   This month another southern island Koh Samui followed along. There are slightly different arrangements with guests to stay within their arrival hotel for three days before supplying a negative Covid test. This gives freedom to roam the island, after 7 days, visitors can also visit the islands of Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. For all the details check out: Welcome back to Thailand via Koh Samui plus All this as Thailand records the highest Covid numbers and death rates ever recorded and stricter measures have been released across the worst affected Provinces.  There is a plan for more of the country to open and the idea was for Thailand to fully reopen to vaccinat